by Amity Hope
Avenge
By
Amity Hope
Copyright© 2014
All rights reserved. This work is protected under the US Copyright Act. It may not be reproduced in any manner without the consent of the publisher. The only exception is for brief quotations that may be used in reviews. Any other use is in direct violation of US copyright laws.
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarities to names, locations or events are coincidental.
Avenge is the second book in a trilogy.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Chapter 1
An illuminated column of light lazily drifted closer. It was easy to see this time of night. It glowed against the backdrop of the inky, star-dappled sky. I tensed as it continued to float our way. It drifted around headstones, looping around them languidly, sometimes floating right through them.
Finola squeezed my hand. The distraction was enough to cause me to pull my eyes from the spirit. She gave me a small smile of encouragement and my gaze drifted back to its original focus point.
Alex was off in the distance, maybe fifty feet or so. I couldn’t make them out in the darkness but I knew he had a cache of spell casting supplies spread out around him. From our vantage point we could just barely make out the sound of his chanting.
I had wanted to be closer.
Alex didn’t want us here at all.
Keeping a good distance between us had been a good compromise.
It had only been a matter of days since Levi Devane absconded with Tristan…Or what was left of him. After having stripped his spirit from his body, Levi had left town with Tristan’s…vessel. His body. Presumably he’d let another Strigan spirit slip inside.
My blood fizzled with an angry heat at the thought of Levi Devane. He’d come to town, stayed at my family’s bed and breakfast, under the pretense of doing research. He’d been researching alright.
As far as I was concerned, the man was the epitome of evil. He was a Striga—a dark magic user—who had used his abilities to his own benefit. He’d stripped the spirits of two Lamia—white magic users—who happened to be classmates of mine. When he’d stripped their spirits he’d managed to leave their magic intact.
He sold their bodies—their vessels—to aging Striga who were desperate for this unethical version of the Fountain of Youth. He’d wanted to strip my spirit to use me as a vessel as well. Tristan had stopped him.
He’d saved me.
It had been at a horrible price. Levi had managed to strip Tristan’s spirit instead. Now my best friend’s spirit was floating around out there. His physical body was filled by someone else.
The thought that some stranger possessed the body of one of my best friends, my longtime crush…It made me ill.
And beyond furious.
Not to mention I felt guilty as hell. Tristan had sacrificed himself to save me. I owed him my life right now. In return I was determined to get his life back.
I’d vowed to do whatever I could do to reunite Tristan’s spirit with his body. To make him whole again. However, I couldn’t do that without help. Lots of it.
Alex, my friend Finola’s Necromancer boyfriend, had already managed to reunite Bree’s body and spirit. Now he was working on doing the same for Jude.
“It’s working,” Riley unnecessarily whispered.
“Shhh,” Finola scolded. The admonition was barely audible as she pressed her pointer finger over her lips.
“So cool!” I cringed at the excitement in Riley’s voice. While she’d said the words quietly, I heard Finola let out an annoyed sigh all the same. Riley was new to our group, a necessary addition that I was still becoming accustomed to.
I was sure that Finola was regretting her intercession on our behalf. She’d promised Alex that if he allowed us to be present, we wouldn’t be a distraction.
So far, I was the only one not oohhhing and ahhhing. The main reason for that was because I was too tense. So much depended on this spell working. I could feel Riley’s excitement bubbling up beside me. I could see the awe plastered on Daphne’s face.
Me? I was a bundle of painfully buzzing nerves.
I could barely peel my eyes away from the spirit being called in by Alex’s magic. Because Alex was a Necromancer, he tended to draw in spirits whether he wanted to or not. The trick tonight was calling in the right spirit. I couldn’t tell if this floating column was Jude. I couldn’t see the spirit the same way a Necromancer could. I had to believe it was him because Alex continued on, drawing the spirit ever closer.
A light breeze picked up. The leaves rustled above us, like paper scratching against paper. It was late autumn and soon the last of the leaves would fall. A few scattered now, floating to the ground around us.
Jude was another classmate of ours. He’d suffered the same fate as Tristan. Alex had been trying to locate Tristan’s spirit to no avail. He thought perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Tristan was Striga. Jude’s spirit, on the other hand, tended to frequent the cemetery. Alex decided to capture his spirit first.
In order to cast the spell Alex needed something personal of Jude’s. An object that held special meaning that would essentially be an anchor, something of significance that would draw him in. He didn’t want to ask Jude’s parents for something. Doing so would’ve likely forced him to explain why. He hadn’t wanted to get their hopes up. Nor did he want to be under that kind of pressure.
Daphne, Finola and I had visited with his parents under the guise of giving our support for Jude’s safe return. During the visit Daphne attempted to pilfer something from his room. A trophy, a trinket, a keepsake that looked important.
It was a failed attempt. On her way to the bathroom—her supposed excuse for leaving the rest of us—she’d realized Jude’s little sister was camped out in his room. She’d come back to us empty handed so we’d moved on to Plan B.
We’d enlisted the help of Riley, a classmate. She had amazing spell casting abilities. She’d spelled her way right into Jude’s locker while Finola, Alex and I had run interference. Some foraging around on Riley and Daphne’s part had procured a shrunken head. It wasn’t real, of course. It was just a trinket that hung in his locker. Aside from his books and random articles of clothing, they hadn’t really had much else to choose from. We had no idea if it was important enough to Jude to use in the spell, but we were about to find out.
“This is so exciting,” Riley whispered from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and tried to smile. Exciting wasn’t the way I would’ve described it. Nerve-wracking was more like it.
The moon cast just enough of a glow to be able to make out her features. Her short, chin length ebony hair framed her narrow face. Her brown eyes sparkled in excitement.
She’d agreed to cast the spell on Jude’s locker for us but only after we’d told her why. So much for keeping our experiment clandestine. Not only had she insisted on knowing why, she’d insisted on tagging along tonight.
It was Finola who had convinced us to let her. As she pointed out, we might need Riley and her special talents again.
In fact, we had a long way to go before we were able to rescue Tristan and Jud
e completely. I was pretty sure, we all were, that we would need all the help we could get.
“Shhh,” Daphne warned. “It’s working. Jude’s almost there.”
All eyes swung back to Alex. The faint hum of his chanting continued to float through the air. The glass sphere glistened in the moonlight.
It had been Alex’s idea to capture the spirits of our friends. I had been capturing wraiths—disembodied spirits who had deteriorated beyond their original mental state—for years. I caught them and placed them in charmed jars.
Tonight, Alex was using a round jar I had charmed especially for Jude. I’d made similar jars dozens of times. But the two jars I’d recently made, one for Jude, one for Tristan, I’d taken extra care with. I’d charmed the glass so that it would be indestructible from inside and out. I’d also added a little extra glimmer and sparkle. I knew from past experience that it would help to draw a spirit in. If I charmed the jar correctly, it would have a magical pull that would help to reel the spirit all the way inside.
I’d never used my jars for capturing a recently departed spirit. A few weeks ago, I would’ve thought the idea was absurd. Tonight, I was hoping with everything in me that I’d charmed the glass to perfection.
Tonight, my creation was being put to the test.
We watched as he continued to cast his spell, coaxing Jude to come closer.
When the column of light neared the sphere, I held my breath. My body was so tense I felt as though I were a pillar of stone. Calling a spirit could be tricky. Coaxing it inside the confinement of the charmed jar was probably going to be trickier still.
As Jude’s light drew nearer to the jar it lit up the trinket that rested on the bottom.
Daphne’s fingers dug into my bicep. I didn’t have to turn to her to see her nervous energy. I could feel it in the air. Over the last few days Daphne had imagined herself half in love with Jude. It stemmed back to a quiet night spent on the beach together, as friends. She’d never mentioned that night to any of us until recently. Now that his was a soul that needed saving, her feelings had blossomed into something more.
I wasn’t sure if Daphne’s feelings for Jude were real, or if they’d been romanticized by the fact that he was in danger. Regardless, they were real to her in that moment. So they were real enough for me.
The spirit slowed as it reached Alex. I tried to imagine what Alex was seeing because he saw so much more than the column of light that the four of us were looking at. When a Necromancer looked at a spirit, he saw that spirit as it had been in life. To Alex, the column looked like Jude.
We continued to watch even though we were unable to hear Alex’s words.
“Is he talking to Jude?” Riley asked. Her whisper sounded like a yell. “He is talking to him. This…is…so…cool!”
“Riley,” Daphne warned this time. Her voice was barely audible.
“Oh, right. Sorry. Zipping my lips,” she murmured.
Jude’s spirit swirled and dwindled as it neatly poured itself into the charmed container. It was working. The four of us watched with baited breath as Alex continued with the ritual. Daphne’s fingers squeezed more tightly as Alex carefully put the lid on the jar, concealing Jude’s spirit inside.
When Alex stepped back Daphne let out an enormous sigh of relief. Her fingers loosened their grip and slid away.
I hadn’t realized until the lid was closed—the spirit totally contained—how nervous I’d been that it wouldn’t work.
“One spirit down,” Riley said cheerily. “One more to go!”
Though we no longer needed to be quiet, Alex had finished the hardest part, her voice seemed absurdly loud. It echoed through the cemetery, bouncing off headstones, as it reverberated through the air.
Finola used her affinity for fire to pull a small flame to her. It glowed in her hand, dancing just above her palm. She used the light to make her way to Alex. We followed, the three of us staying a step behind as she wove her way around the headstones.
Alex’s expression was tense as we neared. His entire body seemed tense. His gaze continued to flit between Finola and the charmed container. It was almost as if he thought if he took his eyes off of Jude for too long, he’d disappear.
“You were amazing,” Finola said. She pressed up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. He blushed and the hint of a smile formed. He finally seemed to relax under his girlfriend’s praise.
“She’s right,” I agreed. “You performed that spell flawlessly.”
“Thanks, Sam,” he said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but I appreciated the compliment. The last few days I’d felt so helpless. It was nice to feel like I was doing something. No matter how small.
He lifted up the sphere and inspected it. “You really know what you are doing with these things. I bet my dad would like to buy a few from you, just to have on hand in case of an emergency. I had no trouble coaxing Jude inside. Now that he’s in, he won’t be going anywhere. The magic you used on this was flawless.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“Did you talk to him?” Daphne asked. “Did he seem okay to you?”
“Yeah,” Alex said, the relief was evident in his tone. “He seemed fine. In fact, he was relieved that we planned on helping him.”
“We got to him in time,” Riley said with a smile. “That’s awesome.”
“It is great,” Finola agreed.
We all knew that once a spirit was stripped from the body, it didn’t have long before it began to lose pieces of itself. Alex was working on a hunch. He hoped that if the spirit was confined it would retain all of itself. That was the reason for the charmed jar. If a spirit was too far gone there was no point in slipping it back into the body it originated from. Doing so would assure that the person would be…off. Possibly insane. That’s why getting to the spirit in time was of the utmost importance.
I was as relieved as my friends. Alex seemed sure that Jude didn’t display any wraithlike characteristics, and therefore could be made whole again.
“Look at all of them,” Riley said. This time her tone was quiet. Her awe evident.
I glanced around.
The cemetery was lit up with spirits.
Alex cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. That tends to happen around me.”
“They’re so pretty,” Riley murmured. She turned, taking in all of the glowing columns.
Alex glanced around and grimaced.
I wondered if some of them weren’t so pretty.
“Are any of them Tristan?” she asked.
Daphne let out a little huff of frustration. She knew as well as I did that if Tristan were here, Alex wouldn’t just be standing around chatting.
“No, Riley,” he said. “I haven’t seen Tristan’s spirit since that first night.”
“Have you tried calling him?” She asked this as though it were a totally novel idea.
Did she really think we hadn’t thought of trying that?
I dropped my gaze to the grass beneath my feet. Her question only drove home the answer I knew Alex was about to give.
“I’ve tried several times,” Alex said. His voice had an edge to it. I knew it bothered him that he hadn’t been able to locate Tristan. He hadn’t been able to call him in, either. He was pretty sure that it was because of the Strigan side of Tristan. He wasn’t responding to Alex’s Lamia Necromancer magic. “For whatever reason, I’m not having much luck.”
“Do you have something important to use?” she asked.
“We’ve tried using a leather band that his mother gave him,” I said. “It was important to him. He always wore it.”
He had given it to me the night he disappeared. He’d told me to take it for good luck. Other than to let Alex use it, I’d had it in my pocket since that night. Now I was the one who carried it with me everywhere.
She nodded thoughtfully. “I remember it. It was thick, right? And had a pentagram? With cat’s eye stones?”
“Yes,” I s
aid.
She tilted her head thoughtfully to the side. I braced myself, wondering what her next insensitive question would be.
“I’m not an expert on magical objects,” she said carefully, “but was that a protective talisman? The pentagram and the cat’s eye stones are both used for protection.”
I nodded. “It was. His mother made it for him.”
“That’s probably why it’s not working,” she said.
“Why?” I asked the same moment Alex asked, “What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “If it has magical properties of its own, it’s probably messing with your magic,” she said to Alex. “Especially if it was charmed for protection.”
Finola groaned. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“I can’t believe none of us thought of that,” I admitted.
“It would make sense,” Alex agreed.
“We all thought it was the best choice because it was so important to him,” Daphne said. “None of us gave any thought to the magic it contains.”
Alex shook his head, disgusted with himself. “How stupid that I didn’t realize it wouldn’t mesh with my magic.”
I felt a lightness in my chest that I hadn’t felt in days. “No, this is a good thing! Don’t you see? If that was the only reason your spell wasn’t working, we’ll just have to find something else! Really, this might be an easy fix!”
We all turned to Alex. I expected him to look as excited as I felt.
“Maybe. We don’t know for sure that’s the only reason it didn’t work,” he said.
I felt my smile slip.
Finola slid her arm around my shoulders. “It’s somewhere to start, Sam.”
“Do you have any idea what will work?” Daphne asked me. “I’m sure Cecily will let you take whatever you need.”
I nodded. “She will. I’ll have to give it some thought.” My mind had gone frustratingly blank at the moment. It was too wrapped up in Alex’s less than enthusiastic response. For just a moment I’d felt so hopeful. The fact that he didn’t seem to feel that way made my own hope dwindle.
I thought I knew Tristan so well. But I couldn’t think of a single object that would be important to him. His khaki backpack? His protractor? Hardly. If not his leather band, I just didn’t know what to use.
